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www.ame.org/target
Spring 2013 | Target
17
The DJO Way
DJOGlobal, Empi Division,
Clear Lake, SD, operates
out of three buildings, with
most of its 166 employ-
ees working in the main
manufacturing building
of some 70,000 square
feet. Empi has been a
global market leader in non-invasive
pain management and physical
rehabilitation for more than 30 years
and its success in this market can be
attributed to its commitment to im-
proving the quality of life for patients
through cost-effective
health care solutions.
While the Clear Lake
Division does many lean
practices extremely well,
one worth mentioning is its “quick
and easy” kaizen event, where the
hallways are lined with employee
ideas. This program trains and
encourages all employees to make
small changes to reduce waste in
operations within their control on a
regular basis. Employees are encour -
aged to complete at least 12 quick
and easy kaizens throughout the
year; several employees complete
many more. In 2011, it had 46 em-
ployees who implemented more than
24 — with one person submitting 85.
“Our ‘quick and easy’ kaizen pro-
gram gets our employees engaged,”
said Marlin Bjerke, vice president of
operations at DJO Global, Clear Lake
Operations. “They’re the ones who
do their jobs harder than anybody,
and a lot of them are involved. There
is 90 percent involvement by our
employees. We’ve been doing the
program for four years.
“This is something they can do
right away, and they don’t have to
wait for permission to do it. They
can just go ahead and do it; we allow
them to spend money, if need be, as
long as it doesn’t require capital —
major capital expenditures. But it
empowers the employee to try to get
them committed to the business. It
empowers them to make decisions,
and certainly ones that I hope will
improve our operation.”
The quick and easy kaizen pro-
gram produced almost 3,500 sug-
gestions in 2011, which saved
more than 4,400 hours, more than
$30,000 in materials, almost 2.8
million steps and more than 21,000
sheets of paper.
Other best practices noted at the
facility include using a cross-func-
tional team to regularly audit inter -
nal quality systems, a robust Em-
ployee Ambassador program, solid
efforts towards right-sizing equip-
ment and minimal finished goods
with inventory turns more than 17x.
Another creative offering from the
company is a pancake breakfast that
is cooked and served by management
to employees who need to work on
Saturdays.
Congratulations to the Empi divi-
sion of DJO Global for its 2012 AME
Manufacturing Excellence Award. •
DJO GLOBAL, EMPI DIVISION
Denise Brown (center), quality control inspector for DJO Global, receives DJO Global’s 2012 AME
Manufacturing Excellence Award in October from Paul Kuchuris (left), AME president, and Maria Elena
Stopher (right), former AME chairman.